Arizona State University, US Space Force team up for sky-high mission

PHOENIX – Arizona State University and the U.S. Space Force will venture past the stratosphere in a new partnership announced this week.

The university and the space service branch of the U.S. Armed Forces finalized an agreement Tuesday to combine efforts on space exploration, defense research and education.

ASU is the latest school to join Space Force’s University Partnership Program, which launched in 2021.

“Whether we help develop the Space Force workforce through formal education or assist with initiatives to bolster national defense objectives, we are all in,” ASU President Michael Crow said in a press release.

“We are certainly no stranger to space.”

ASU scientists, researchers, engineers and students have taken part in more than 20 missions to space, including an imaging system that is inspecting Jupiter’s moon and ShadowCam, designed to collect images of the permanently shadowed area of the moon in a search for frost and ice.

“We embrace this new U.S. Space Force partnership and look forward to future collaboration at all possible levels,” Crow said.

Lisa Costa, Space Force’s chief technology and innovation officer, pointed to ASU’s strong reputation and called the school “the perfect addition to the program.”

Under the terms of the partnership, ASU could be involved with cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and homeland security operations.

ASU said it research expenditure surpassed $677 million in 2021, ranking it No. 6 for universities without a medical school.

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